The Elusive Reconstruction

Two incidences early in the year have served to bring to the fore, issues brewing just under the surface in Muslim societies worldwide for the better part of a century. These are: the violent disruption of a mixed marathon in Gujranwala by activists of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in April, and a bill moved in the National Assembly, calling for a ban on women in advertising during the same month. Submitted privately by as many as 21 members of the National Assembly all incidentally belonging to the MMA the bill calls for a crackdown on parties displaying or publishing “indecent” advertisements.


The MMA contends that such exhibition of women as in advertisements in Pakistan, is contrary to the teachings of all religions and eastern values, promotes licentiousness and damages the society. By implication, it is also against the Islamic edicts of “hijab”. As the government, by Article 31 of the constitution, is bound to take measures to enable the Muslims of the State to spend their individual and collective lives in consonance with the teachings of Quran and Sunnah, the MMA argues, depiction of women in advertisements should thus be prohibited by law.


The reaction to the aforementioned incidents from various camps was predictable. The federal government rallied to defend its liberalist policies, slamming the MMA for disrupting law and order and adopting a distorted interpretation of Islam. The intelligentsia writing in the scarcely read English dailies as per custom trashed the MMA’s views as obscurantist and narrow-minded, and obfuscating the “true spirit” of Islam. A few from the moderate fold even went on to highlight a dire need for a revision of religious thought in light of modern advancements in technology and learning, in order to accommodate the cultural changes transpiring as a consequence.


Other critics maintained that the MMA should focus on fundamental issues of poverty and education rather than indulge in political manoeuvring by playing the religion card every now and then.


While one may agree that the MMA may have had ulterior motives of soliciting political clout in trumpeting the said incidents, one would nonetheless have to concede that the issues at hand are deeper than petty power play. They highlight the existential dilemma of a culture torn between religious values and modernism, and its feeble efforts to reconcile the two. The tragedy of the Muslim world, and indeed of the entire modern civilisation, is that while it has witnessed mind-blowing advancement in learning over the last five centuries, it has been unable to facilitate an intellectual evolution to compliment this material progress. The outcome is a civilisation with the world at its feet, yet burdened with the moral guilt of somehow having sinned gravely by bringing about astounding material innovation. A stupefying progression in science and technology has made our lives infinitely more comfortable, but the inability of modern philosophy to keep pace with it has caused humanity to feel culpable by virtue of that very progression.


The consequence has been lamentably predictable. In the absence of a moral code to harmonise with its current state of development, mankind has invariably gravitated towards materialism, helped in no uncertain terms by relativist philosophers. The heartrending misfortune of our times is that man today has to stand trial in a court of morality for the crime of striving for the most moral of goals; building a better life for himself.


In our society, the blame for this state of affairs falls squarely on the intelligentsia. As in any societal structure, the responsibility of moral and philosophical evolution rests with the intellectual elite. In this case, ours has failed miserably. It is because of this letdown on the part of our thinkers that although one may condemn the MMA’s tactics of trashing marathons and violating the law of the land, one cannot dispute the underlying principle behind their action. Mixed marathons and advertisements flaunting women do indeed go against Islamic values as interpreted in the Sharia – the Islamic law from the Quran and Hadith.


If there is to be a reconstruction of religious laws, as the more perspicacious among us are wont to aver, one wonders how it is to be brought about. Whenever the question of the “true sprit” of Islam arises, members of the liberal intelligentsia embark upon vague protracted accounts of a radical revamp of religious legislation. However, not one of them takes the crucial step forward to define exactly what that reconstruction is, what its basis would be, how it is to be brought about and in what specific areas of jurisprudence. The fact that the last consequential work on this subject was undertaken by Iqbal some 80 years ago, amply exhibits the lack of commitment and competence of our intellectuals towards so critical an issue.


Throughout history, there have existed traditionalist elements in society which have vehemently supported established social and theological norms, opposing all innovation for fear of distortion of their pristine ideals. Although one may argue that September 11 had a lot to do with it, the fact is that the MMA came into power with a substantive mandate on the promise of implementing religious laws. With the prevalence of such an air of uncertainty, one cannot possibly blame it for playing its historical part rather well.


We have too long been slave to the paradoxical state of material well-being with a guilt-ridden morality. It is about time that we began to contemplate the implications of questions raised by the MMA, rather than dismiss them as extremist rhetoric.